by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Jeff Gordon scored his first Sprint Cup victory of the season Saturday, leading the final nine laps of the 5-Hour Energy 400 at Kansas Speedway.

The four-time series champion's No. 24 Chevrolet inherited the lead when Brad Keselowski pitted for fuel under green. Gordon fended off Kevin Harvick by 0.112 seconds for his 89th win in NASCAR's premier series. He became the ninth winner of 2014, effectively clinching a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

"I knew we had a fast race car. We've had a fast race car every single week. And that's just given me so much confidence," Gordon said after climbing from his car.

"Kevin was tough. He was so strong. I did not know if I could hold him off and I almost didn't there at the end.

"This is so sweet. What a huge weight lifted off this team's shoulders."

Harvick, who already has two wins this season, closed the gap quickly on Gordon on the final lap but couldn't quite catch him. He led a race-high 119 of 267 laps and took the blame for giving away the win by being too slow on his final green-flag stop

"I ran out of gas coming down pit road and I didn't get out of the pits very well. And he was able to get ahead of me there," Harvick said.

"I slipped a little with 10 or 11 laps to go, but was able to make it up again in the closing laps. Just not enough. It was just a weird night for sure."

The seventh place was a career-best finish and among the most impressive performances in NASCAR for Patrick, whose only previous top 15 this season was a 14th at Auto Club Speedway.

She started ninth Saturday and held her own in the No. 10 Chevrolet, staying in the top 10 for the first half of the 400-mile race. Her car roared to life after restarting sixth with 107 laps remaining. Two laps later, she passed Denny Hamlin for fifth, and she climbed to third by zooming past Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Lap 172.

"My goal at the beginning of the race was just to stay in the lead group and we were able to do that," Patrick said. "What can I say? I'm really overall proud of the team for building cars this good. And we had a good car tonight. You could see on the long runs.

"I know we haven't had the best of times. But it's days like today that we work hard for. And it's days like today that materializes in wins. Got a top 10. Yea!"

The result came on the heels of Patrick leading a season-high six laps at Talladega Superspeedway. Her only previous top 10 was an eighth in the season-opening 2013 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, another restrictor-plate track.

Sara Christian's fifth-place finish in a 1949 race remains the best for a female driver in NASCAR's top series, according to The Associated Press.

After track-record speeds in qualifying and minimal tire wear in practice, drivers had predicted passing would be at a premium. The forecast was confirmed during a race in which the field strung out quickly after restarts in a long single-file line with large gaps.

Getting caught in traffic spelled doom for many. The best example was Harvick, who started from the pole and led 89 of the first 101 laps. But a caution flag during a green-flag pit stop sequence trapped the Stewart-Haas Racing driver a lap down. Harvick got his lap back, but he restarted in 18th on Lap 151 and gained no positions over the next 30 laps under green.

There still were several cautions as drivers struggled to keep ill-handling cars that trended loose. Clint Bowyer, Hamlin, Marcos Ambrose and Kurt Busch (twice) caused yellows with single-car spins.

The largest crash occurred on Lap 188 and started when A.J. Allmendinger's No. 47 Chevrolet wiggled in traffic, triggering a pileup on the frontstretch. Justin Allgaier's Chevrolet plowed into the Ford of David Gilliland, who walked gingerly away from his destroyed car.

"I am OK," he said. "Just a little sore, obviously. That is one of the hardest hits I have had in awhile. Hopefully it will be the hardest one for awhile to come too."

The race started 35 minutes late because of the threat of severe storms in the area, and it got weirder during a caution on Lap 111 when a bank of lights lining the outside of the backstretch turned off. NASCAR polled drivers via radios and decided it wasn't too dark to continue racing.